China still dominates Sri Lanka foreign loan disbursements

Nov 13, 2017 17:53 PM GMT+0530 | 0 Comment(s)

ECONOMYNEXT – China continued to dominate total foreign loan disbursements made to Sri Lanka this year, lending almost 35% of the total US$901.6 million through development projects and programmes during the eight months 31st August, 2017, according to the finance ministry.

Out of the total, $19.6 million (or Rs. 2,980.3 million) was made as grants and $882.1 million (or Rs. 133,999.3 million) was made as loans, according to the ministry’s Fiscal Management Report – 2018.

The Chinese loans came from Export-Import Bank of China, which provided $257.1 million, and China Development Bank Corporation, which gave $62.2 million.

Of the foreign financing disbursements, China was followed by Asian Development Bank (which gave 22 percent) and the World Bank (which gave 16 percent).

“From the total disbursements made during the period under review, the highest amount was disbursed to Roads & Bridges sector, which is 43 percent,” the report said.

Next came the Power & Energy (10 percent), Water Supply & Sanitation (9 percent) and Health & Social Welfare (7 percent) sectors.

The biggest multilateral lenders during this period were Asian Development Bank which gave $194.8 million and International Development Association which gave $129.4 million.
(COLOMBO, November 13, 2017)